– Tomorrow, Thursday, at 8:30 in the morning in Dubai (5:30 Spanish peninsular time), the Englishman Marcus Armitage will kick off the Dubai Invitational and thus hit the first shot of the year 2026 on the DP World Tour. The first, mind you, of more than a million competition shots that will be hit this year, from now until the season ends in mid-November…
– First things first: tomorrow, at 13:30 in Dubai, during the first round, play and activity will cease for one minute at the Dubai Creek Resort, the tournament venue, in memory of those who died in the tragic fire at the bar Le Constellation in Crans Montana on New Year’s Eve, among whom was Emanuele Galeppini, a young Italian golf prospect who was also a member of the Dubai Creek Resort and had just been named at 16 years old as junior Captain of the club for 2026. Emanuele’s family is, in fact, at the tournament this week, struggling to regain some normality in their lives, as recommended by the psychologists treating them.
– A rather eventful week is expected at this first event of the year due to the wind, with gusts of up to fifty kilometres per hour expected on Friday and Saturday. The greens of the charming Dubai course, immaculate and in perfect condition, were above 12 on the stimpmeter, but have already been reduced to 11.5-11.8, precisely because of the weather forecast. The rough is somewhat challenging, and these two circumstances, wind and rough, suggest that the winning score might not reach the -19 that Tommy Fleetwood needed two years ago to claim victory.
– In this reduced field tournament (sixty players) with no cut, the starts are in pairs, although the format for the first three rounds is Pro-Am, with an amateur accompanying each player. On Sunday, however, only the professionals play.
– Although the Christmas break always raises questions about the players’ form, you don’t have to look far to label the two favourites, who are none other than the World Numbers 2 and 3, Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood, who already played together in the star match on Sunday of the first and only edition of the tournament, two years ago.
– We have seven Spaniards in this Dubai Invitational: Nacho Elvira, Pablo Larrazábal, David Puig, Ángel Hidalgo, Ángel Ayora, Eugenio Chacarra, and Alejandro del Rey. And the truth is, they shouldn’t find it too difficult to improve the combined result of the Armada in that first and only edition to date, where a twentieth place by Pablo Larrazábal and Adrián Otaegui was the best result.
